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Firmware 2.01 Can "Brick" The PlayStation 3?

We're always a little concerned about firmware updates - never know what might happen - and it seems the latest for the PS3 is causing a severe problem for a few users. The good news is this doesn't appear to be a widespread problem, as those suffering from a "bricked" system appear to be in the minority.

But that minority has spoken out in the past few days over at the official PlayStation message boards and specifically at Ripten. It seems that immediately after downloading firmware update 2.01, the PS3 stopped playing Blu-Ray discs, and soon after, stopped playing any kind of disc (DVD, PS2/PS1, CD). Here's one of the documented reports-

“I inserted Blu Ray Disc into PS3 for first time and movie appeared under video tab. It started to play and i started skipping previews and then all of a sudden screen went blank. I went back to PS3 home screen and tried ejected and inserting Blu Ray movie back into PS3 and the icon fails to appear under the video tab. I then tried DVD and that did not appear either. PS3 Games still work. Please help!”

Someone at Ripten found his PS3 wouldn't work at all - PS3 games included - as the media capability of the system had evidently failed entirely. Now, if there are enough similar complaints out there, Sony will likely issue a fix in a future "stability" firmware update for the console. However, it would have to be proven that update 2.01 is indeed the culprit...and there may not be enough sob stories out there to prove that. Ours remains fine after the update, for example, and nobody we know has had any problems, either. Perhaps these are just isolated incidents...?